What is Direct Media Delivery and Why Does Flowroute Use it?

Posted on March 20, 2021

At Flowroute, we prioritize being able to deliver superior call quality and reliability at a fraction of the cost. How do we do it? Direct Media Delivery (DMD). This approach allows us to offer on-demand capacity rather than limiting the number of simultaneous calls that can be made on a Flowroute account.

What is DMD?

Direct Media Delivery is a component of SIP trunking. The SIP is broken down into two different types of protocol: the media and the signaling. The signaling is the underlying programming that’s making the connection. The media is the actual audio transmitting from one side to the other, allowing the caller and receiver to communicate.

Flowroute takes a unique approach to deliver call audio and employs DMD to ensure voice streams are delivered over the shortest, simplest path from caller to destination. Specifically, we send the media component of telephony directly to our underlying peer’s session border controller (SBC), while we transmit the signaling information. Our peering networks’ media gateways offer massive amounts of bandwidth. Because we’re a fully cloud-based carrier, we send call signaling directly over the internet—leading to higher call quality and fewer dropped calls or latency in your audio stream. DMD eliminates the need to proxy call audio between your system and the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

Why does Flowroute use DMD?

DMD is a unique approach that sets us apart from other carriers. With DMD, we can provide the highest possible quality audio by ensuring calls take the shortest, simplest path from the caller to the destination. We’ve adopted this process so Flowroute users have high-quality audio and do not have to worry about disconnections or garbled audio.

DMD also helps customers save money. Rather than charging for call paths—aka the number of calls you can have going at the same time—we offer unlimited capacity. As noted above, this approach gives customers the control to manage the numbers on their account and the flexibility to have an unlimited number of calls at one time. Specifically, users can easily monitor usage of the phone numbers and scale up or down as needed, without having to pay for unexpected fees.

Leveraging DMD also allows Flowroute to scale our network to meet customer needs more rapidly than other carriers. This agility allows us to prevent single points of failure, so customers have consistent service and the highest uptime – no disruptions. Our innovative approach has even earned us recognition in our industry. As the first software-centric carrier, our network and expert-level service has ranked us number one in customer satisfaction.

It’s important to keep direct audio in mind when configuring your SIP device’s local network, as the only call data that passes through our servers directly is your SIP signaling traffic. These are mere kilobits of data which allows us to connect your call to a media gateway, delivering the highest call quality available.

DMD is a simple and effective way to deliver better communications connection to customers. Users benefit from clear and reliable audio without paying extra fees. When it comes to powering up and evolving your telecoms, you can count on Flowroute to provide reliable, streamlined and cost-effective solutions that ensure optimal experiences. Check out our website to see how we can ensure you are getting the best call quality for the best price.